Wedding Captives (Harlequin Intrigue, No. 649)

Rating:
Summary: Wedding Captives
Review: An already strong year for Intrigue gets even better with the extraordinary "Wedding Captives" by Cassie Miles. Full of dark suspense and strong romance, this is one of the very best Intrigues in some time.

Thea Sarazin's best friend has been swept up in a whirlwind courtship with a mysterious millionaire. Now Thea is attending the wedding at the groom's isolated caste in the Rocky Mountains. She doesn't expect to find her own ex-fiance in attendance. Thea doesn't have time to recover from the shock when the wedding party finds themselves trapped in the castle, cut off from the rest of the world with no way of getting help. A madman wants revenge on all of them for a secret he claims they all have in common. Unless they confess, he will kill them. Can Thea and Spence work together to figure out the secret that links them all before a murderer takes his final revenge?

"Wedding Captives" is a superb Intrigue, combining a good romance, an emotional conflict, a devious villain, a puzzling mystery and the kind of dark, mysterious setting that sucks the reader in and won't let go. The story is not a new one. Regular readers may remember Jean Barrett executing the same plot in Intrigue 351, "White Wedding" : the isolated wedding party in a winter setting, the maid of honor, her former love, the killer coming after them all, even the same red herring, executed no better here than before. In "White Wedding" it was too obvious. In "Wedding Captives," it is too pointless. This is still the better book.

"Wedding Captives" is clever and very smart, a perfect blend of character-based romance and a mystery full of twists and turns. The reasons for Thea and Spence's breakup aren't based on some stupid misunderstanding. They had serious differences of opinion that kept them apart. Now they are different people and it is interesting to see them grow and overcome their past. The suspense is strong. Not only is there a constant sense of danger on every page, this is the kind of book that will appeal to readers who enjoy a story they can try to figure out with the characters. Miles drops clues and lets the reader play along with the mystery. I love it when it is clear an author has put a great deal of thought into her story. Miles has obviously put a lot of effort into plotting and working out every aspect of this tale. I started out having serious doubts about the plausibility of the premise, and the author had her characters address them one by one, such as how a castle accessible only by ski gondola was built on such an isolate mountain to begin with. Her attention to detail is incredible and gives the story a realistic, present-day grounding that makes even this outlandish premise seem like it could really happen today. For instance, Thea and her friend are both teachers, and at one point Thea notes how difficult fit is to be a schoolteacher in Colorado post-Columbine. Details like that make Thea and Spence fully rounded characters, make them that much easier to care about and make the story seem more real.

"Wedding Captives" is the second book in Miles's Colorado Search and Rescue series, though it stands on its own. It's so much better than book one, "State of Emergency" that readers might as well start here. This book has everything I read Intrigue for and everything I've missed for so long. If you're looking for the very best in romantic suspense, including tension-filled suspense, puzzling romance, passion and emotion, this is the book for you. I have no doubt that it will turn out to be one of the best Intrigues of the year.

Rating:
Summary: Wedding Captives
Review: An already strong year for Intrigue gets even better with the extraordinary "Wedding Captives" by Cassie Miles. Full of dark suspense and strong romance, this is one of the very best Intrigues in some time.

Thea Sarazin's best friend has been swept up in a whirlwind courtship with a mysterious millionaire. Now Thea is attending the wedding at the groom's isolated caste in the Rocky Mountains. She doesn't expect to find her own ex-fiance in attendance. Thea doesn't have time to recover from the shock when the wedding party finds themselves trapped in the castle, cut off from the rest of the world with no way of getting help. A madman wants revenge on all of them for a secret he claims they all have in common. Unless they confess, he will kill them. Can Thea and Spence work together to figure out the secret that links them all before a murderer takes his final revenge?

"Wedding Captives" is a superb Intrigue, combining a good romance, an emotional conflict, a devious villain, a puzzling mystery and the kind of dark, mysterious setting that sucks the reader in and won't let go. The story is not a new one. Regular readers may remember Jean Barrett executing the same plot in Intrigue 351, "White Wedding" : the isolated wedding party in a winter setting, the maid of honor, her former love, the killer coming after them all, even the same red herring, executed no better here than before. In "White Wedding" it was too obvious. In "Wedding Captives," it is too pointless. This is still the better book.

"Wedding Captives" is clever and very smart, a perfect blend of character-based romance and a mystery full of twists and turns. The reasons for Thea and Spence's breakup aren't based on some stupid misunderstanding. They had serious differences of opinion that kept them apart. Now they are different people and it is interesting to see them grow and overcome their past. The suspense is strong. Not only is there a constant sense of danger on every page, this is the kind of book that will appeal to readers who enjoy a story they can try to figure out with the characters. Miles drops clues and lets the reader play along with the mystery. I love it when it is clear an author has put a great deal of thought into her story. Miles has obviously put a lot of effort into plotting and working out every aspect of this tale. I started out having serious doubts about the plausibility of the premise, and the author had her characters address them one by one, such as how a castle accessible only by ski gondola was built on such an isolate mountain to begin with. Her attention to detail is incredible and gives the story a realistic, present-day grounding that makes even this outlandish premise seem like it could really happen today. For instance, Thea and her friend are both teachers, and at one point Thea notes how difficult fit is to be a schoolteacher in Colorado post-Columbine. Details like that make Thea and Spence fully rounded characters, make them that much easier to care about and make the story seem more real.

"Wedding Captives" is the second book in Miles's Colorado Search and Rescue series, though it stands on its own. It's so much better than book one, "State of Emergency" that readers might as well start here. This book has everything I read Intrigue for and everything I've missed for so long. If you're looking for the very best in romantic suspense, including tension-filled suspense, puzzling romance, passion and emotion, this is the book for you. I have no doubt that it will turn out to be one of the best Intrigues of the year.